Innocent with dirty hands

The picture takes place in Saint-Tropez on the south coast of France. Julie Womser ( Romy Schneider ) sunbathes in the courtyard of his villa. Her neighbor, a young handsome Jeff Marl ( Paolo Giusti ) launches a kite, which accidentally flies into her territory and falls right on her naked body.

Julie introduces Jeff to her husband Louis Womser ( Rod Steiger ) as their neighbor and writer. Jeff is stroking her back on this moment. Louis says he drinks a lot and wants to leave this place with his wife. He complains that she does not make love to him, does not kiss and does not even allow herself to be touched. When Louis gets drunk and goes to bed, Julie says that she can no longer tolerate it. She lays on the carpet, Jeff hugs her.

Naked Julie and Jeff are lying in bed. Julie says that Louis had a heart attack, after which he sold his business, and now wants to leave for Martinique, hoping to stop drinking. Julie says that Louis is 18 years older than her, at one time he was very nice and funded the film in which she starred. Jeff says that Louis will die soon.

It takes three weeks. Louis gives Julie a new sports car. He again says that he drinks too much and wants to leave. Then he gets drunk and goes to bed. Left alone, Jeff and Julie are planning a murder. They agree that the murder will be committed in two hours, after which Jeff leaves for himself.

Julie enters Louis’s room, takes a club from the table, hits him on the head with all his might, washes a club, puts it in its place, and then brings a large plastic bag to Louis’s bedroom. She leaves the room, closes the door, goes downstairs and sits waiting in the lobby on the ground floor. A noise is heard above. Julie looks out the window, and through the haze he sees someone carrying a huge sack of body to the pier. She goes up to Luis’s bedroom and makes sure that she’s not there, and then goes to bed.

In the morning, a letter is put under her door. Julie goes out into the yard and sees that her new car is gone. From the letter, she learns that Jeff left in Italy for 2-3 days in her car, ostensibly to collect material for the book, and asks her to write poste restante to Montona. Julie calls the police and claims that her husband went to sea on a boat and did not return.

Detectives come to Julie - the local commissar Villon ( Pierre Santini ) and the Parisian commissar Lamy ( Francois Mestre ) who is on vacation. Police found Womser's boat, but no one was aboard. Lamy sees in the kitchen a lot of empty whiskey bottles. Julie says that her husband has no enemies, and recently the husband has been talking mainly with Jeff, who lives in the neighborhood and often comes to visit for a chat. This morning, Jeff drove away in their car (which he allegedly took at the insistence of her husband) to Italy to collect material for the book. Julie says that Louis had a heart attack a year ago, and another attack could happen, after which he fell into the sea. Neighboring Vomserov, Madame Chauvin, confirms that she saw Jeff typing all night at home, and Louis left the house at the pier at 4-5 a.m. with a big bag.

Upon inspection of the boat, detectives see that there is no fish or bait, the safe is open and empty, and they also find a bloody stain. This confirms the version that Louis could fall after a heart attack and hit. Commissioner Lamy, however, doubts this version due to the lack of traces of bait on the boat; he is also confused by the large number of empty bottles at Luis’s house, the beauty of his wife, and Jeff's unexpected departure. He suggests that Womser is an alcoholic, and his wife was very tempted to have a lover. It is not clear why Jeff took the car.

Julie receives a letter from Jeff, who writes that he hid the money and jewelry in a safe place, and that Louis woke up on board and broke his nose. Julie sends him a love message.

Julie goes to the bank, where she finds out that her husband withdrew all the money from his account two days ago. There she meets detectives, together they go to inspect his safe, where securities and valuables were lying, but he, too, is empty. Julie meets with her husband’s legal adviser, Georges Toran ( Francois Perrault ), who says that Louis took all the money to leave for the Antilles and decided to sell the house.

Detectives come to Julie and tell her that the doctor said that Louis never had a heart attack, he just hid his impotence from her. Julie confesses that they have not had sex for a long time. In addition, the police found her car, which fell from a cliff and crashed near Montona. No bodies were found in her, only a jacket with Jeff's documents. In addition, the detectives found Julie’s earring in Jeff’s bedroom, but she claims she’s never been there.

Julie is called to the investigator. Her extravagant lawyer Albert Legal comes ( Jean Rochefort ). The investigator sets out a version of the police: Jeff and Julie in collusion. Jeff killed Louis on a boat, stole his money and jewelry from a safe, and drove away in their car. Julie was due to join him soon, but Jeff died unexpectedly. Blood found on the boat matches the group with Jeff's blood. In addition, in the pocket of Jeff's jacket was found Julie's envelope, but without a letter. The lawyer skillfully rejects all charges against his client, and she is released.

At night, Julie enters the house, sees a man on the stairs, thinking that it is Jeff, but it turns out to be Louis. Louis says he knew everything from the start. Once he saw that they were making love, then he began to follow and eavesdrop on them. He heard how Jeff offered to kill him and how they developed a plan of murder.

Having risen into the bedroom that evening, Louis waited for Jeff to go home, hit him in the yard with a club on the head, carried him through the back door into the bedroom, laid him in his bed and covered with a blanket so that only a part of the crown could be seen. It turns out that Julie hit the head not of Louis, but of Jeff. Then Louis went to Jeff's house and pretended to be typing all night. He returned home early in the morning and took Jeff's bound body on a boat to the sea. When Jeff woke up, Louis forced him to write a confession, and then drowned. Louis tossed an earring into Jeff's house, took the car he had presented to his wife, and drove off to Montona, hiding money and jewelry on the way, and began sending letters to Julie on behalf of Jeff.

Julie no longer has neither money nor a lover, and she is completely dependent on her husband, who has the recognition of Jeff. Meanwhile, Louis was transformed, under the influence of what happened, he stopped drinking and is again able to make love with his wife. Louis says that "thanks to you, I have risen."

Julie comes to George Toran and finds out how to quickly get money on Louis's insurance, for example, is it possible to take a loan on bail of insurance. This is a decent amount, sufficient to move to another city and buy an apartment. Georges invites her to live with him, but not to leave for another city.

Commissioner Lamy puts forward a new version of events: Louis most likely did not accidentally withdraw all the money two days before his disappearance, but disappeared clearly planned. And toss the earring into Jeff's house was beneficial only to him. Lamy concludes that Louis arranged everything. Lamy suggests that Louis is alive and hiding somewhere, perhaps from Georges.

Meanwhile, Louis was tired of hiding from the police and living a double life. The relationship between him and Julie has changed again, they are again ready to live together. Detectives come to Julie and report that Louis may be alive, but she escorts them, claiming that she knows nothing about this. After their departure, Julie and Louis run out into the yard, get into the car and drive to Georges, who, as it turns out, knows everything and, moreover, keeps Louis’s money and values, as well as Jeff’s confession. Georges urges Louis not to trust Julie, saying that he does not like women at all. Louis replies that Julie is his wife, and asks her to be treated accordingly.

At this moment, Jeff enters with a gun. All the dead are resurrected.

Louis knew that Jeff was alive, he could not kill him, and even gave 50 thousand francs to leave. Instead, Jeff began to follow Louis in the hope of finding out where his money was hidden. Julie walks up to Jeff and hugs him. Jeff gives Julie a second gun, and he leaves with Georges for money and jewelry. Louis gets sick, Julie tries to help him, then runs out of the house and runs to meet Jeff. The detectives received a signal that someone very similar to Jeff was noticed in the house of Georges, they instruct the police to intensify monitoring of what is happening around the house.

Julie stops Jeff's car, saying that Louis is dying, and he urgently needs help. She demands to drive faster, but instead, Jeff stops the car. He says that his confession has been destroyed, all the money in his trunk, Georges is no more, and soon there will be no Louis. They are rich and free, that is, everything that they dreamed of came true. However, Julie's attitude to what is happening has already changed, and she refuses to run with Jeff. Enraged, Jeff attacks Julie and tries to rape her. At that moment, the police flies up and grabs Jeff. Julie says urgently needs to save her husband. However, the police do not have time, and Louis dies.

In court, Julie suffers and does not want to talk with lawyer Legal. Legal says that Jeff will receive 10-15 years, she thanks to his efforts will receive a year and a half conditionally. However, Julie replies that she is ready to give everything for her husband's life. For the fact that she wanted to kill her husband, they did not do anything to her, but for the fact that she wanted to save him, she would be convicted. In the last scene, Julie sits alone in her house and looks at the sea. Somewhere in the distance, an obscure light flickers. Julie rises and as if enchanted moves towards this wondrous flicker.

• Romy Schneider - Julie Woomser
• Rod Steiger - Louis Woomser
• Paolo Giusty - Jeff Marl
• Francois Mestre - Commissioner Lamy
• Jean Rochefort - Attorney Albert Legal

• Innocent with Dirty Hands on the Internet Movie Database  
• Innocent with dirty hands on allmovie